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AQA English Literature revision group 2020

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Spec A - Othello, The Great Gatsby, Love through the ages
Regeneration, My Boy Jack and Wilfred Owen War poems.

Can someone please help me with general revision tips/writing a good essay? I'm really struggling, especially with the comparison between Gatsby + love through the ages poetry and with comparing/contrasting in unseen poetry (paper 1). I'm not sure how to structure my points/how many points to make and how to write a good overall essay. :frown:

x

#HELP #Failing

(edited 4 years ago)

Reply 21

MapleFu

Original post by Watercolourkid

What are the chances 😂 nope! Only heard back from Northumbria :/ wby?! Where have you applied to?

Honestly! The course is still fairly popular and yet, not many people I know are going into it. Nice, I've gotten two offers from Kent and UCA so far! I'm applying for Oxford Brookes, UCA, Kent, NUA and Anglia Ruskin nothing too fancy, wbu?

Reply 22

helloitsme35

Original post by martidstelling

Studying Spec B.
Tragedy: Death of a Salesman, Keats' poetry, Othello
Social and Political Protest: The Handmaid's Tale, The Kite Runner, and Songs of Innocence and Experience by William Blake

Studying the course in a year because they didn't run an AS class last year!

I am studying exactly the same texts!

Reply 23

ohdearstudying

Original post by tia.xiourouppas

@Puddles the Monkey
I believe I am on English Literature-A course
I am studying: pre 1900 poetry, Othello, The Great Gatbsy, ( focusing on love through the ages), The Handmaids Tale, A Streetcar Named Desire, and Feminine Gospels
Comment what books you are studying and if you need any help, and hopefully someone will have some tips!

Imagine we take the exact same texts! :smile:

Reply 24

aj2001-1

Hi,

I'm not doing my A-level this year but was wondering if anyone could help me out?

So we have mocks coming up in February but we haven't had much support as both our teachers have been off for a while which isn't great. My school do it differently where we're studying Atonement and Pre-1900 poetry and My Boy Jack and war poetry and then the other texts next year. So i was wondering if anyone had any high level essays they could share on these (maybe dm me) so I know what I should be aiming for or if they wanted to share any notes, that would be amazing!

No worries if no one can help though :smile:

Reply 25

martidstelling

Original post by helloitsme35

I am studying exactly the same texts!

Aw amazing! Which is your favourite?

Reply 26

ARUStudents

Official Rep

Original post by cheerIeader

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#HELP #Failing

Hey- university student here!

In terms of writing a good essay, it's a good idea to plan out your points and what each one will lead into. So for one paragraph start with the point you want to argue, then go into the textual evidence ie. giving examples, then explain how these texts back up your point and anything that might be up for debate. Examiners love it when you can look at a text through more than one lense. For comparing/contrasting unseen poetry: is it definitely going to be a Wilfred Owen poem? If so, a good place to start is maybe going over a few of his most well known poems and then a few obscure ones. They love throwing out a random poem that no has heard of!
In terms of how much to write- a fantastic exercise/prep is to time yourself. If it's a 90 minute exam, take 15 minutes to read through and make notes on the poem. Start by reading the poem without making notes and think about your first reactions to it- what jumps out at you, what you find interesting, what is obscure or difficult to understand. You can then start thinking about what effects these create, and scribble all over the poem to get all your thoughts down. Then take 10 minutes or so to sketch out a brief plan- small intro, a main argument or two, and a small conclusion. That's 25 minutes for planning and you've got a plan to follow, then just over an hour to get it all down.
Hope this helps!

Reply 27

ARUStudents

Official Rep

Original post by MapleFu

Hey, I study Writing and English Literature at ARU! If you've got any questions about texts or the course in general- or if you've applied for just English Literature instead of a combined course, just ask! :smile:

Reply 28

tiajourno

Original post by ohdearstudying

Imagine we take the exact same texts! :smile:

thats mad haha, for paper 2 what are you thinking of comparing and wiring seperaely? I'd love to write about streetcar on its own but I find poetry with any other type of literature really difficult to compare. On the other hand, if I write about the poetry on its own, I feel like streetcar and handmaids are actually quite dissimilar. Worst case scenario is comparing streetcar with poetry imo

Reply 29

WynterSa

Original post by tia.xiourouppas

I am studying the same texts as you 👌🏼 I need serious help with Paper 2 lol. I hate Paper 2 bc I can’t structure the essays for it properly. Someone help with my dilemma!!

Reply 30

Sonicblue75

I’m studying tragedy Death of a salesmen, Othello and Keats poetry
And crime Brighton rock, when will there be good news along with browning,crabbe and Wilde for Poetry.

Reply 31

Sonicblue75

Anyone got tips for a 3hr literature exam?

Reply 32

MapleFu

Does anybody have any advice on how to get an A?
Currently stuck at a B and want to really push myself further!

Reply 33

yjaber22

Original post by entertainmyfaith

spec b
othello, death of a salesman, tess of the d'urbervilles, atonement, oliver twist and rime of ancient mariner.
coursework: one flew over the cuckoo's nest from feminist perspective and goblin market from marxist pov
used to love english lit at gcse but this subject's such a chore for me now lmao

literally do all of these except oliver twist!!!!1

Reply 34

chloelx01

I always do section B and C first as they NEED a conclusion due to the nature of the question’s debate or you lose serious marks, whereas unseen extracts are not arguments so if you run out of time it isn’t ideal but you wont lose marks for conclusion as the question is typically ‘explore’, meaning you look into the point not debate. Timings wise I would just revise the texts to the best of your knowledge off the top of your head, put the texts out of the way and restrain from using them as you spend more time looking through the books - this will give you an extra 30 mins to use (hence why its longer than paper 1) on your essays

Original post by Sonicblue75

Anyone got tips for a 3hr literature exam?

Reply 35

absolutelysprout

Original post by yjaber22

literally do all of these except oliver twist!!!!1

aye how you finding the texts?? which one are you doing instead of oliver??

Reply 36

yjaber22

Original post by entertainmyfaith

aye how you finding the texts?? which one are you doing instead of oliver??

im struggling so much with my year 12 books its unreal, and im doing brighton rock instead of oliver. also i 100% relate to how the subject is such a chore now. we have finished all our content now tho and were just doing revision from now til exams which is great but still finding it so hard to balance everything. what other subjects are you taking?

Reply 37

absolutelysprout

Original post by yjaber22

ah lucky, we're still doing rime but have finished all our other texts otherwise :redface:

got my crime mock back today and i'm really disappointed with how i did but oh well :erm:

english lit is just so much effort and my nea final draft is due next week too :rip:

i'm doing maths and psychology, probably finding english my hardest tbh out of all my subjects. you?

Reply 38

yjaber22

Original post by entertainmyfaith

ah lucky, we're still doing rime but have finished all our other texts otherwise :redface:

got my crime mock back today and i'm really disappointed with how i did but oh well :erm:

english lit is just so much effort and my nea final draft is due next week too :rip:

i'm doing maths and psychology, probably finding english my hardest tbh out of all my subjects. you?

im doing psychology sociology too, defo finding psychology the hardest but english is close second. I got a B in my last mock but that was year 13 (crime) texts so im very worried about the upcoming march mocks because were going back to year 12 (tragedy) texts. What texts are you struggling with the most? Also, do you do OCR psychology?